Where People Are Moving To In Maine In 2026

The fastest-growing towns in Maine last year all cluster in one corner of the map. Seventeen towns over 5,000 people grew at least 1% in 2025. Ten of them sit in Cumberland and York counties down south. New families keep arriving from Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Portlanders priced out of the city are spilling into the suburbs next door. Maine barely grows on its own births anymore. Nearly all of it comes from people packing up and moving in. The seven towns below are catching the biggest share in 2026.

Scarborough

Scarborough led every Maine community in raw growth over the past five years. The town added 2,431 residents between 2020 and 2025, reaching 24,547 people, an 11% gain. It sits along the coast about eight miles south of Portland, inside expensive Cumberland County. Much of the new population traces to a single site. The Downs is a 577-acre redevelopment of the former Scarborough Downs harness-racing track. It has built more than 600 homes since the track closed in 2020, with hundreds more approved. The project's business park filled faster than planners expected and now holds over 50 tenants. Costco opened Maine's first location there, and IDEXX runs a manufacturing facility on the site. A Market Basket and the state's first newly built town center are under construction on the same ground. Buyers priced out of Portland have found new homes here that the city cannot supply.

Gorham

Gorham posted the largest single-year population gain of any Maine town in 2025. It grew by 656 people, a 3.5% rise, reaching 19,239 residents. Across the full period since 2020, Gorham added roughly 900 people. The town sits about 12 miles west of Portland and forms the western edge of the metro area's commuter belt. New housing explains most of the surge. A first phase of 391 units is rising off Robie Street in Gorham Village. The town also approved 284 more units at a former golf course in South Gorham. The University of Southern Maine keeps a campus here, which steadies the rental market and brings in younger residents. Routes 114 and 22 carry Gorham commuters toward Portland each morning. The pace of subdivision approvals has made Gorham one of the clearest cases of Portland growth spilling west.

Windham

Windham gained 1,483 residents between 2020 and 2025, an 8% increase that lifted it to 19,912 people. The town spreads northwest of Portland along Route 302, roughly 10 miles from the city. Many of its new arrivals come from the Portland area, trading city prices for lake-region space. It is one of seven communities on Sebago Lake, Maine's second-largest lake and a long-standing summer draw. North Windham serves as the retail and service hub for the whole Lakes Region, with grocery stores, medical offices, and most of the area's dining. That commercial base lets new residents handle errands without driving into Portland. The Route 302 corridor doubles as the morning commute, and a regional bus runs the same road between Bridgton and Portland. Outdoor access seals the appeal. The Mountain Division Trail links Windham with Standish and Gorham over a five-mile paved path, and Sebago Lake State Park is minutes from town.

Westbrook

Westbrook shares a border with Portland and has absorbed its growth directly. The old mill city on the Presumpscot River reached 21,565 residents in 2025, up 1,158 since 2020, a gain of nearly 6%. It carries an advantage few suburbs match: a major employer headquartered in town. IDEXX Laboratories, a global veterinary diagnostics company, keeps its world headquarters in Westbrook. Rock Row supplies the other half of the story. The 110-acre development, built around a former quarry now filled with water, has become Maine's busiest shopping center, drawing 4.3 million visits in 2025. An REI, a concert venue, a grocery store, and a new medical campus operate there already. The next phase will add roughly 280 apartments and a hotel, with construction slated for 2027. Westbrook gives buyers Portland-adjacent jobs and shopping without a Portland address, which has kept its population climbing.

Brunswick

Brunswick occupies the northeastern corner of the metro area, where the coast meets the Androscoggin River. The town reached 23,055 residents in 2025, up 1,292 since 2020 for a gain of roughly 6%. Its growth runs on a base the Navy left behind. Brunswick Landing is the redeveloped former Naval Air Station Brunswick. The campus now houses more than 150 companies and about 2,300 jobs in aerospace, biotech, and manufacturing. Wayfair, STARC Systems, and the rocket maker bluShift Aerospace all operate on the 3,200-acre campus. The site is also one of the largest housing developments in Maine, with hundreds of units occupied and more underway. Many residents arrive from out of state and from elsewhere in Maine, drawn by the campus jobs. Bowdoin College holds down the other side of town and feeds a downtown of restaurants and shops. Mid Coast Hospital keeps major medical care in the community. Brunswick gives newcomers a working coastal town with its own jobs, rather than a bedroom suburb of Portland.

Kittery

Kittery marks the southern end of Maine, the first town travelers reach crossing the Piscataqua River from New Hampshire. The state's oldest incorporated town grew to 11,420 residents in 2025, up 1,346 since 2020. That 13% gain ranks among the fastest in the state. Kittery sits in York County, where IRS county-to-county data shows inflows from out of state and from Cumberland County to the north. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard drives the local economy from Seavey Island, employing 7,721 civilian workers in 2024. The Kittery Outlets pull shoppers year-round along Route 1, with more than 120 stores. Demand has pushed housing onto former retail land, and the town approved replacing one outlet plaza with apartments, a hotel, and a restaurant in 2024. York County's median sale price reached roughly $525,000 in early 2026, behind only Cumberland County and well above Maine's statewide median near $405,000. Kittery serves buyers who want Seacoast jobs and a short bridge to Portsmouth.

Eliot

Eliot rose faster in percentage terms than any other sizable Maine town. The community grew 13.7% between 2020 and 2025, adding 923 residents to reach 7,643. It lies just up the Piscataqua River from Kittery, across the water from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Eliot trades the shipyard's activity for room to spread out, drawing buyers who want land and a quieter setting within commuting range. Like Kittery, it pulls new residents from the Seacoast across the New Hampshire line and from southern Cumberland County. The town keeps a rural feel, with working farms, the Raitt Homestead Farm Museum, and stretches of river frontage. The William Fogg Library, built in 1907, still anchors the village center. Interstate 95 runs minutes away, putting Portsmouth and the shipyard within a short drive. Eliot has become the overflow valve for a Seacoast market that prices many buyers out of the towns directly on the water.

Maine's Growth Stays South

Maine's population gains keep concentrating in its two southern counties, and 2025 shows no sign of a shift. Cumberland County absorbs out-of-state newcomers while pushing priced-out residents into suburbs like Scarborough, Westbrook, and Gorham. York County catches the Seacoast overflow in Kittery and Eliot. For buyers already in Maine, the trend means tighter inventory and steeper prices in the towns adding the most people.